Minoan Beehives: Reconstructing the Practice of Beekeeping in Bronze Age Crete

Over the last fifty years there has been a significant increase in the archaeological evidence for the practice of beekeeping in Ancient Greece and the Mediterranean in general. On Crete the production of honey has traditionally been a significant economic activity, and the use of wax as a fuel has been documented since at least the 2nd millennium BC. However, the question of how beekeeping was practised on Crete during the Bronze Age remains very controversial. The large quantity of data now available has prompted us to undertake an archeological and ethnographic investigation into ancient and modern Cretan material connected with beekeeping. By means of typological and contextual analysis of the salient classes of pottery, and adopting an environmental and contextual approach to the relevant archaeological evidence, both ancient and modern, an overview of the technology and practice of beekeeping on Crete is provided together with its integration with other economic activities in the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC.